Why the new Yayoi Kusama exhibition in Paris is a must see

Yayoi Kusama’s dizzying work in now on display at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, a hallucinatory, immersive experience characteristic of the Japanese artist who describes her life as “a pea lost among thousands of other peas.”

Yayoi Kusama is surely one of the most eccentric and brilliant artists of our time. Her work is an ode to the psychedelic, to geometry, fantasy and color, embodied with giant pumpkins, peas and mind-bending line and dot creations. She uses fine technical skill and precision to create her spectacular, often immersive works, which dance on the line between art and visual poetry. Playing with temporality and space is a key part of her universe, seeing her construct luminous works such as that found in the Yayoi Kusama Museum in Tokyo, opening in 2017. Now, her work is on display in an incredible immersive exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, having already planted an endless field of luminous pumpkins in the Victoria Miro gallery in London last year. The artist has installed one of her signature Infinity Mirror Rooms in the heart of Paris, seeing her hallucinations brought to life. She often muses, “My life is a pea lost among thousands of other peas”, and the selection of works at the foundation encapsulates this idea. The exhibition is themed “A Vision For Painting”, in which a small room in entirely covered in mirrors, with psychedelic mushrooms sprouting from the ground and clusters of giant red peas peppered throughout. It is a dizzying immersion into a completely otherworldly hallucination, the mirrors reflecting into infinite, creating an overwhelming sense of endlessness. The queue for the installation may also seem a little surreal but don’t be put off, it is well worth it.